Keeping robots clean is a big deal for NASA. After all, any bacteria
you accidentally take with you to another planet could potentially screw
up any scientific discoveries, or the bacteria could decide they like their
new digs, multiply out of control, evolve, develop a death ray, and then
come back to Earth and kill us all.

To keep this from happening, NASA is practicing its techniques
for robot sterilization. The robot in the photo is Cliffbot, which NASA
took to Svalbard to do some exploring. Using a seven step cleaning
procedure involving distilled water and hydrogen peroxide, they
managed to keep Cliffbot’s sample collectors completely free of
biological contamination.

Cliffbot is designed for planets like Mars which have lots of exciting
craters and cliffs and volcanoes that are generally inaccessible to
wheeled robots. By using two anchorbots, the 18 pound Cliffbot is
able to descend and ascend rocky slopes of up to 85 degrees. Cliffbot
has the added advantage of being able to work in a team with other
robots in other scenarios like cooperative construction projects.

www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/systems/system.cfm?System=6

MECHing a KIT

As cool as Mech warfare is, the barrier to entry (in terms of
both skill and money required) is relatively high, since participants
have to pretty much design and construct their robots from
scratch. With this in mind, Lynxmotion is working on a biped
Mech kit that includes everything you’ll need right out of the
box, from a camera system to airsoft guns.

www.lynxmotion.com

BATTLEBOTS LAUNCHES YOUTUBE CHANNEL

If you couldn’t make it to the closed set filming of the latest season of BattleBots and your cable package
doesn’t include CBS College Sports, the BattleBots You Tube channel at least gives you a taste of what kind of action
BattleBots has to offer and how it differs from similar events like RoboGames.

The BattleBots TV season is tentatively scheduled to kick off in December of this year, and BattleBots is already
scouting for locations for the 2010 season, with filming to begin in March or April.